Chicken Pesto Salad with Tomatoes

The pesto sauce itself is from the ancient Time-Life series on food. It's an excellent pesto recipe. Bertucci's in Cambridge, MA, the original Bertucci's, used to make a chicken pesto, served as part of their antipasto. Rebecca's in Kendall Square served a salad with farfalle, tomatoes and chicken. My take is derivative, but delicious. Odd how the old original stuff is always best. If you can lay your hands on native or home grown tomatoes, the dish will be that much tastier. Bon appetit!


Chicken Pesto Salad with Tomatoes

1) Chicken: poach a large chicken breast in salted water with aromatic vegetables (celery, onion, carrot and parsley or cilantro) until tender. Cool. Remove chicken from bones and cut into bite sized pieces. Can be done ahead of time.

2) Make pesto: Ingredients list: 2 cups (packed) fresh basil leaves, stripped from stems, and coarsely chopped. 1 t. salt, ½ t. freshly ground black pepper, 2 t. chopped garlic, 1 to 1 ½ T. finely chopped pine nuts (preferred) or walnuts. ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese.

Method: in a blender or food processor: combine basil, salt, pepper, garlic, nuts and 1 c. olive oil. Mix at high speed until ingredients are smooth. Stop and push herbs down with a rubber spatula if needed. The sauce should be thin enough to run off the spatula. If too thick, add more oil and blend. Transfer sauce to a bowl and stir in grated cheese. Can be done ahead of time.

Coat cooked chicken with pesto (you will not need more than ½ cup. Save remaining pesto for other uses. (Cover tightly so that it will not discolor).

3) Meanwhile, cook 1 pound of farfalle (bow tie pasta) in salted water following package directions. Drain and rinse with cold water.

4) Cover 2-3 large firm vine-ripened (home grown are best) tomatoes with boiling water. Drain, run cold water over tomatoes and slip the skin off the tomatoes. Cut tomatoes into wedges.

Assembly: In a large attractive serving bowl, combine chicken pesto, and pasta. Toss and dress with a bit more pesto if necessary. Taste for seasoning. Chill. Before serving, add tomatoes and toss lightly one more time.

Garnish with fresh basil leaves.